1. Field of the Invention
This invention relates generally to the field of applications for Internet based websites. Moreover, it pertains specifically to a method and system for ranking a plurality of artists using a popularity profile generated for each artist from data gathered among sources accessible via the Internet. In the preferred embodiment, the popularity profiles will provide music artists with the ability to track and view their ranking and popularity.
2. Description of Related Art
Numerous online companies exist that purport to gauge the popularity of artists, particularly music artists. One famous example is Billboard.com, the online version of the long-standing purveyor of song and album charts, which ranks top-selling artists. A more recent example is last.fm, which provides music artist rankings based on song plays. The major problem with Billboard and its ilk is that the rankings are too limited. These companies highlight the top few hundred musicians at best, which is only a tiny portion compared to the hundreds of thousands of musicians that play to U.S. listeners. Moreover, they rank the musicians using only one or two criteria such as retail store sales and online song downloads. The same criticism can be said of rankings for other artists, such as authors. Only a relative handful of authors are ever showcased because the rankings are generally no more than best-seller lists.
The emergence of mashup sites combined with social networking tools has begun to address the limitations of the more conventional ranking sites. iLike.com, for example, provides lists of popular music based on the recommendations of listeners. Some sites like indiecharts.com provide a mashup of top artist lists (mainly from last.fm) along with rankings generated from voting by the listeners on the site. These are incremental improvements, but they still focus only on a narrow range of criteria as well as ignore the vast majority of artists who will never make it onto a “top 100” or “top 500” list.
In this sense, these tools are no more effective than sites like Billboard.com in showcasing the many artists whose sales or media presence may not be strong enough to lead the conventional top-seller lists but who nevertheless provide desired content for particular genres or niches—the “long tail” of the market.